Happy Birthday 🎁 Ma Rainey Reposted from @bbc_culture This is the real Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, who was immortalised in August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and more recently, the George C Wolfe movie adaptation. She was one of the blues’ first hitmakers, who had been performing the blues for two decades before recording her first session at 37 in 1923. But, like many of the first wave of breakout blues artists, her legacy was pushed aside in favour of others. Tap the link in our bio to read the history of the black women who pioneered the blues, and why so many of them were forgotten. 📸 Getty Images. #BBCCulture #MaRainey #MaRaineysBlackBottom #blues #theblues #1920s #twenties #didyouknowthat #music history @i_lex_project https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc0uYVRg4ck/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=